Pushing for Validation
by Lady Emily
Summary: After the reunion in Kansas, Cody gives a science lesson, and he and Bailey learn that a disagreement doesn't have to mean the end of the relationship. Post-Twister.


A/N: Hey folks! I've been sitting on this little one-shot for a while because it's not one of my favorites, but I feel like I need to post it on principle because I wrote it to scratch a major itch I've had with the show, way back since "Lost at Sea." This is a totally nerdy thing to get upset about, but the part when Cody and Moseby were ridiculed by Bailey and Tutweiller for thinking the Coriolis Effect should be considered in the ocean currents really burned me, because the guys were** right**. That Miss Tutweiller, a geography teacher and former meteorologist, would think that the Coriolis Effect was irrelevant is simply ludicrous, and I feel like viewers probably came away from the episode with the wrong idea (the episode implied that the women were right all along, while the men got their comeuppance for their "mistake".) I guess no one ever called Suite Life an educational program, but honestly, a quick check with anyone who knows anything about physics, weather, or oceanography could have resolved this issue, so this is my sad little attempt to shame the writers.

It's kind of fluffy, so hopefully you'll like it too! Let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I do not own and am not making any profit from the use of the Suite Life characters.

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><p><em>This is the life.<em>

Bailey Pickett sighed in contentment as she leaned back in her plastic inner tube, feeling the gentle rise and fall of the ocean beneath her. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes, allowing the very ends of her hair to trail in the warm, salty water, and the sun to shine down on her face and throat.

Just a week ago she'd been standing in the windblown remains of her Kansas farmhouse, fearing that she would never be able to return to Seven Seas High, and this beautiful dream of traveling the world. But thanks to the intercessions of her boyfriend, Cody, and her roommate and best friend London, her parents' farm was safe and on its way to being rebuilt. She'd spent the past week toiling in the dusty fields of the Midwest, and now, while they were docked in the blue waters of the Caribbean, she intended to relax and unwind.  
><em><br>Her boyfriend. Cody.  
><em>  
>She said the words once more, mentally, letting a smile cross her lips. They'd broken up months before after a silly fight that had resulted in a painful (and, admittedly, childish) estrangement. And yet when she'd mistakenly given him the impression that she was in danger, he'd flown across the country to rescue her, and they'd both been forced to admit that their feelings for each other had never stopped. And then he'd leaned in and kissed her, in full view of her family and all their friends...<p>

Every time she thought about it, she felt like she was glowing.

"Hey you."

She was startled by a voice behind her, just managing not to flip her inner tube. Her eyes shot open and she found herself looking at the very object of her thoughts. Her heart flip-flopped at the sight of him, clad in nothing but red swim trunks, his usually-immaculate hair mussed by seawater and the ocean breeze. The water was up to his chest, and as he rested his arms on her inner tube she noted that his skin was slightly tanned- he actually looked like he was getting some sun, for once. "Cody! Don't do that!" she reprimanded him teasingly, resting one pruny hand on her chest.

Boldly, he rested one hand on her bare knee. "You looked deep in thought."

Bailey grinned at him coyly. "I was thinking about this guy." she teased.

"Uh oh." Cody murmured. "I hope it was your dad..."

"Nope." She raised her eyebrows, daring him to keep guessing.

"Woody?"

She giggled. "Uh, _no._"

"Mr. Moseby?"

"Oh, just give up. You'll never get it." Bailey taunted.

"Fine, I give." Cody spun her tube around so that her head was closer to him, bringing her lips within reach. "Who were you thinking about, that was putting that beaming expression on your face?"

"You'll never guess!" Bailey repeated, causing him to scowl, and her to giggle.

He spun her back around, catching her by one foot. "Typical." he sighed. "I come all the way out here to keep you from drifting away, and all you can do is tease me."

Bailey shaded her eyes with one hand and looked back at the distant beach. "I didn't realize I was in danger of drifting away." she said. Then she smiled wickedly. "Pick up your feet, and we'll float away together."

"Hmm..." Cody murmured. One of his hands danced up the smooth skin of her leg, and Bailey shivered with delight. "That sounds tempting."

"I know." Bailey sighed. "Let's do it. The S.S. Tipton can pick us up next time it's in the States."

"The States?" Cody repeated.

"Sure." Bailey said. "We're in Bermuda, we'd float east. We'd probably wash up in the Carolinas somewhere."

"...Oh." With a half-laugh, Cody pursed his lips and said nothing further.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Bailey flicked some water at him. "Come on, what? You think I'm wrong?"

"No." Cody said quickly. Too quickly.

"You do think I'm wrong!" Bailey exclaimed.

"No, no." Cody hastened to assure her... but his face held a different answer. "It's just... nothing."

Bailey was perplexed. If Cody thought she was wrong about some scientific fact, he never thought twice about correcting her... until now, apparently. "What? You're not going to correct me?" she said in a teasing voice. "You're not going to tell me to apply the Coriolis force?"

"I... I'm sure you're right." Cody deferred, looking down at his feet through the clear water.

Bailey's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong with you?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." Cody said. He dropped a quick kiss on the knee nearest his face. "You know, I love you, Bails."

"I love you too." Bailey replied automatically. Then her eyes widened accusingly. "...Wait! Is that why you're letting me win?"

"Win what?" Cody asked.

"The argument!"

"There was no argument." Cody pointed out.

"Yes, there was." Bailey insisted.

"Not unless you count the argument we're having about whether we're having an argument." Cody quipped. He tapped his hands on her tube gently. "Bailey, I don't want to fight."

"I don't want to fight either. But it's not fighting, it's an academic debate." Bailey protested.

"Yeah, exactly the sort of thing that always turns into a fight with us." Cody pointed out. "So can we just drop it? It's fine."

"It's _not _fine." Bailey argued, her forehead creasing in worry. "I don't want you to fake agree with me just because you're afraid we'll break up again! A relationship _depends _on complete honesty."

"You're right."

Bailey gasped and pointed at him accusingly. "You just did it again!"

Cody sighed and let go of her tube, folding his arms across his chest. "Okay. I mean, you're right in _theory_. In _practice_, complete honesty is not the way to go. For example, you say _what do you think of these shoes? _You say, _do you want to watch __The Notebook __with me? _You say, _don't you think the Coriolis Effect is negligible with respect to oceanic circulation?_" he shrugged. "There are the _right _answers to these questions, and then there are the _true _ones. That's just how it works."

Bailey was galled. "I don't be_lieve _you! Wait..." she added in a small voice. "Which pair of my shoes don't you like?"

"The yellow wedges." Cody answered immediately. "Frankly, they're gaudy. And they look like they squeeze your feet something awful."

"They do. But that's beside the point." Bailey admitted with a frown. "The point is that you've been lying to me."

"No, I haven't." Cody said quietly. "I've never lied to you about anything important." He reached over and took one of her hands. "I love you, Bails. And love means compromise, and compromise means picking your battles. I don't want to spend our time together arguing over stupid stuff."

"I understand that." Bailey said finally. "And I agree with you, I guess. It's just... I don't want you to feel like you have to defer to me on everything just because you're afraid to lose me. I promise I'll still love you, even if we disagree sometimes."

"You promise?"

"I promise." Bailey repeated, pulling on his hand and maneuvering herself close enough to kiss him.

Cody pulled away, smiling. "Hmm... well tell me: do you agree that the Earth rotates from west-" He placed his left hand on one side of her tube. "-to east?" He placed his right hand on the other side.

Bailey frowned at him curiously. "Yes... I agree."

Cody continued. "And do you agree that, if I drip some water on the top of this tube, it will flow downward, back toward the ocean?"

"Of course." Bailey nodded, still not seeing where he was going.

Cody lifted this hand and dribbled several drops of water along the top of her tube. "Pretend this inner tube is the Earth." he said. "So it's a rotating frame." And with that he grabbed her tube and sent her spinning, west-to-east.

Bailey laughed as he spun her a few times before letting the water resistance of the sea bring her to a natural halt. "Okay...?"

"Check out the drops." Cody said.

Bailey obediently leaned over to see the water trails the drops had left. "They're curved." she said. "The drops fell down and to the right, because the tube was moving under them."

Cody smiled at her. "That's the Coriolis Effect."

"Right..." Bailey said, her eyebrows furrowing with concentration. "But wait- in the southern hemisphere-"

"It's backwards." Cody confirmed. "In the southern hemisphere the Coriolis Effect turns things to the left, in the northern hemisphere it's to the right. And at the Equator nothing happens." he shrugged. "The tube's not a perfect example, I guess. If I had, like, a flat, spinning plate, and some balls to roll across it-"

Bailey held up her hand. "I get it, I get it. The balls would curve differently depending on whether you spun the plate clockwise or counter-clockwise."

"Exactly!" Cody beamed, pleased that she'd caught on so quickly. "And, logically following, since the Earth is spinning...?"

"If you're trying to get me to admit that the Coriolis force affects the ocean currents..." Bailey folded her arms over her chest in a gesture of stubbornness.

Cody grinned and shrugged. "I know I'm right, but I don't hate hearing it..."

"Such modesty." Bailey said, rolling her eyes. "I don't think I need to feed your ego any more by telling you you're right." she teased, reaching for his shoulder and pulling her tube in closer to him.

"That's fine." he said, raising one shoulder in a careless shrug. It wasn't really like him not to push for validation, but at the moment all Bailey could concentrate on was when he was finally going to kiss her.

And then, just like she knew he would, he leaned in, until his lips were hovering a breath above hers. She closed her eyes.

Splash!

At the last second before their lips touched, his hands found the underside of her tube and pushed up with all their might, flipping it over. Before she realized what was happening, she was fully submerged. She surfaced, dripping and sputtering as she flopped gracelessly back into the tube. "Hey! That wasn't nice!"

"When you're right, you're right." Cody acknowledged blandly as, just as she got herself settled, he reached under her and flipped the tube again.

This time when she came up, she petulantly spit a stream of water at him, giggling as he ducked away. "All right, you're right!" she laughed. "I give."

"That's my girl." Cody grinned, and the fuzzy feeling she got in her stomach more than made up for having to admit she was wrong.

"That's my guy." she answered proudly, if cheesily, pulling him in for a salty kiss... and then another.

They didn't return to the beach until long after the inner tube had drifted out to sea.


End file.
